TikTok Talks: Make-up artist Ciara McKeown: ‘I’ll go to bed with the make up on and I’ll get up and continue’

Make-up artist and content creator Ciara McKeown has amassed over 300,000 followers and six million likes on TikTok since she started posting videos of her make-up transformations.

“I started over on Instagram whenever I got into make-up which was about nine or 10 years ago.

“At the time it was the go-to app, it was very popular so that’s where I would’ve posted my make-up looks,” Ciara explains.

“All my friends at the time were wondering what I was doing posting all these selfies, but it was for me to promote my make-up because I’d just started, and I was so excited about it – I was pretty much using it as my portfolio.

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“Then TikTok came along, and I jumped on it quite early and just started doing make-up videos on it and found it so much more fulfilling to have videos along with your images because it just showcased a whole different layer of what you can do.”

Originally Ciara worked in Paddy McGurgan’s Make-Up Pro Store in Belfast. She has now become well known for her detailed special effects make-up.

“Whenever I was at school, I loved painting, that was my favourite thing, and I would’ve done a lot of portraits - I loved the face and I love creating dimension.

“Then whenever I started doing make-up, I worked at Make-Up Pro Store for years and it was instilled in us there to be as creative as possible,” she recalls.

“So that was when my love for special effects started because we would’ve had artists from all over the world come in and teach us and it made me realise how much I loved that side of it.

“Merging beauty into the special effects and having both of them together was so fun for me.”

Ciara is now working as a freelance make-up artist, giving her more time to work on her looks. So far, she has recreated many iconic characters including Jim Carrey’s The Mask, Voldemort from Harry Potter, Vecna from Stranger Things and Pennywise from IT. However, she confesses that so far, her favourite recreations have been Winnifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus and The Grinch.

“The Grinch is so popular, if anyone is ever talking to me about my social media the first thing, they bring up is the Grinch or Winifred Sanderson and they’re both my favourite movies, I love them so much, so I think they’d have to be my favourite looks too.”

Before starting any make-up look Ciara will visualise how she wants it to turn out and draw up a plan. The whole process takes hours, sometimes days to complete.

“It’s so long,” she says.

“I always wanted to get into prosthetics because I just knew I’d love it and it would really add that extra impact.

“So, I went to America last summer for a month and I trained in prosthetics and mask making and all types of special effects and how to actually make them myself.

“My whole type of make-up look has changed dramatically over the last year and a half because I’m now able to actually create anything I want which is so fun.”

Ciara has even gotten to a point where some of her looks are full face prosthetics which she makes from scratch.

“Since starting that whole process, it could take me maybe 10 days to create a make-up look because I have to sculpt the whole face and then there’s the whole process of making the silicon prosthetic and then applying and painting it all.

“I always tend to have a couple on the go at the same time just so I have a few of them ready to go. I don’t put too much stress on myself anymore with the time frame but if I was to really knuckle down and do it constant it would take me from a week to 10 days to get one finished.

“Then sometimes if I sit down to do a painted look on my face, they can take me two days to do, I’ll go to bed with the make up on and I’ll get up and continue.”

You would imagine, after all the time, energy and effort Ciara puts into her make-up she would be heartbroken when the time comes to take it off…

“It’s not heartbreaking at all, see when you have all that stuff on for a long period of time and you’ve got the contact lenses in it is so uncomfortable and you’ve maybe been doing a couple of TikToks where you’re acting and doing voice overs so you are exhausted.

“When you’re ready to take it off it is the best feeling ever and it takes me no time at all because I will literally just rip it off,” she laughs.

In addition to sharing her talent on TikTok Ciara has also been working with non-profit organisation World Vision.

“Working with World Vision was one of the best experiences of my life.

“I went to Uganda with them in the summertime, they had brought some make-up artists from here and other different areas over to Uganda as a group and we went and visited different areas of Uganda where farmers are making the crops that go into our make-up products.

“We specifically focused on vanilla which is in a lot of make-up and beauty products but also candles, food and a lot of stuff that we use day to day, so we went and visited the farms and got to meet the farmers and their families and see how vanilla is grown.

“The aim was to promote the farmers and the work that they do, and it was the most amazing trip ever.”

When asked what advice she would give to aspiring make-up artists she said:

“There’s so much in your phone and on the TV you can take that will teach you how to progress as a make-up artist for free.

“TikTok for example, has so many tutorials now so I think taking advantage of that and practicing is a great step.

“Going and doing a course is also really advantageous because you can meet people and make connections, which will open doors for you as well.

“I always say you can never stop learning, I will still be going and doing courses and stuff in special effects because I will always want to evolve and get better.”